Combination sport seat and walking stick

ABSTRACT

A combination sport seat and walking stick comprises a staff or leg member and a seat member hinged at its midpoint to one end of the staff, with strut means connecting an end of the seat to a sleeve that is slidable between fixed terminal positions on the staff for holding the seat alternatively in operative position normal to the staff or retracted in inoperative position along the staff and projecting from the named end of the staff in substantial alignment therewith for use of the device as a cane or walking stick.

United States Patent [191 Garvey June 18, 1974 COMBINATION SPORT SEAT AND WALKING STICK [76] Inventor: Francis J. Garvey, Conwell Ave.,

' Newfield, NJ. 08344 22 Filed: Oct.2, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 293,834

. 52 U.S.Cl. 248/155 51 Int. Cl. A47c 13/00 [58] Field ofSearch 248/155, 1551,1554,

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 7 0,97 /1 France A 8/ ..-1 925,123 5/1963 Great Britain.. 297/118 279,334 10/1927 Great Britain 248/1551 Primary ExaminerRoy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Thomas J. Holko Attorney, Agent, or Firm-A1bert H. Kirchner [57] ABSTRACT A combination sport seat and walking stick comprises a staff or leg member and a seat member hinged at its midpoint to one end of the staff, with strut means connecting an end of the seat to a sleeve that is slidable between fixed terminal positions on the staff for holding the seat alternatively in operative position normal tothe staff or retracted in inoperative position along the staff and projecting from the named end of the staff in substantial alignment therewith for use of the device as a cane or walking stick.

2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 757,776 4/1904 Russell 248/1554 2,567,595 9/1951 Bryant 248/439 X 2,905,513 9/1959 Kane 108/129 X 2,978,012 4/1961 Norseen 297/183 X 2,998,663 9/1961 Boardman et a1. 108/117 4. F t. u

aimma PAIENTEBJun :8 m4

- a projected-seat-operative BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The prior art provides a number of devices comprising a seat member hinged on a leg structure for movement between extended operative position and a retracted or folded inoperative position facilitating handling and carrying. These devices are intended principally foroutdoor recreational use, typically by spectators at sports-events, e.g., following the contestants in a golf match, and for such purposes it is of prime importance that the structure be highly mobile and portable and hence foldable into'small compact compass when not being put to seat use. In some cases efforts have been made to fashion the parts and arrange their relationship in such a way as to produce a lightweight aggregation well adapted for use as a cancer walking stick when the parts are in the carrying or seatinoperative position. However, difficulties have been experienced in effecting acceptable compromises between the requirement of solid and substantial support for the seat in the operative position and the elimination from that support of all cumbersome and awkward or complicated'structure that would render it unacceptable as a walking stick. The result has been that few if any of these prior art devices have achieved any notable commercial success.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to provide an improvement'in this art in the form of an uncomplicated lightweight combination of a leg element in the form of a single length of tube or pipe stock and a sheet metal seat member hinged to the leg for movement between position .and a retracted-seat-inoperative position in which the seat is secured in aligned extension of the leg so that the structure is well adapted to be hand carried by means of a handle formed on the end of the seat member at the top of the combination and, when thus carried, to function as a walking stick or cane and to present an appearance not inconsistent with such use, all embodied in metal structure of attractive appearance capable of being fabricated and assembled at low cost.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this application for letters patent and which illustrate an embodiment of the invention that has been successfully reduced to practice and is at present preferred,

FIG. '1 is a side elevational view of the device with the seat member extended in operative position;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the device with the seat member retracted in inoperative position for use of the device as a walking stick; I

FIG. 3 is a detail end elevational view of the device with the parts shown in the relationship of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view of the seat member, taken in section through the staff, on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view through the staff and slide or sleeve, taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The device provided by the invention comprises principally an elongated leg or stick member 10 and a short oblong seat member 12. The elongated member serves as a supporting leg when the device is used as a seat and as a staff when the device is used as a walking stick.

This member, hereinafter called the staff, is best made of conventional lightweight tubular stock, such as extruded aluminum alloy, of appropriate strength and diameter, say one inch, cut to suitable length, such as some 28 inches, although it is to be understood that these dimensions, as well as all others, and all proportions, proposed in this explanation of the invention, are suggestive and exemplary merely and form no part of the principles of the inventive concept.

The seat member 12 is best made of aluminum alloy sheet material in a gauge sufficient to provide the necessary stiffness when cut and stamped into the preferred form best shown in FIG. 4. This is a substantially oblong shape which, when used with a staff of the suggested length, is best made some 14 inches long and 3% inches wide. Depending from this 14 X 3 /2 inch flat upper surface are one inch flanges 14 downturned from the longitudinal side edges and a wider transverse flange downturned from at least the major portion of the length of one end of the member, which flange is curled inwardly to form a carrying handle 16, as best I shown in FIG. 1.

Suitably affixed to the under side of the seat member, preferably at substantially the mid-point, is a bracket 18, which has a pair of spaced downturned ears to which the upper end of the staff 10 is hinged, as by means of a double-headed pivot pin 20, whereby the seat member is mounted on the end of the staff for movement between an extended position normal to the staff, so as to be substantially horizontal when the staff is vertical, as shown in FIG. 1,-and a retracted position in substantially parallel proximity to or actual contact with the staff, as shown in FIG. 2.

To fix the seat member releasably in either of these two positions, strut means are provided linking the member to the staff.

The strutmeans best takes the form of a pair of link members 21 of stout strap metal cut to suitable length. Each has one end pivoted by a pin connection 22 to one of the longitudinal flanges 14 of the seat member, at or near the end thereof which is opposite the handle end 16. The other end of each link or strut member is similarly pin-connected, at 23, to a sleeve 24 which is snugly but slidably fitted on the staff.

It will be evident that with the sleeve thus slidable along the staff, the two struts 21 link the seat member to the staff for hinging about the pin 20 from an extended position normal to the staff when the sleeve is in an upper position, as shown in FIG. 1, to a retracted position folded against the staff when the sleeve is in a lower position, as shown in FIG. 2.

In order to fix the sleeve releasably in either of these two positions, a detent 26 is provided. This is best made in the form of a short pin 28 projecting from a spring finger 30 which is riveted at 32 to the sleeve, so that the pin is biased into either one of a pair of holes 34 formed in the staff and located at such elevations on the staff that when the pin snaps into the upper hole the seat member will be supported securely in operative posi- 3 tion in substantially right-angular projection from the staff (or at some slightly oblique angle if that be preferred), as shown in FIG. 1, and when the pin snaps into the lower hole the seat member will be held in the retracted inoperative position shown in FIG. 2.

The relationship of the parts is best made such that in the retracted position the under surface of the seat member contacts the staff and the plane of the member extends in substantial alignment with the staff, so that with the member securely latched in this position, the effective length of the staff is virtually extended by half the length of the seat member for use of the device as a cane or walking stick. And of course in this relationship of the parts the upper end of the device presents the handle 16 in position for convenient handling and carrying.

The lower end of the staff is best closed by a suitable plug which may, if desired, be provided with a blunt point, as shown at 36, for insuring against slipping when the device is being used as a seat and is stood on soft ground or turf with the staff inclined at some considerable angle to the vertical.

Changes in details of the embodiment herein selected to illustrate the invention may be made within the spirit of the invention and the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A combination sport seat and walking stick comprising 1 a one-piece leg structure consisting of a hollow tubular single staff,

a seat member comprising an oblong sheet metal body having a downtumed flange at each longitudinal edge and at one end edge only, said end edge flange being turned inwardly, thereby forming a handle,

means hinging one end of the staff to the under side of the seat member at substantially the center of the member,

a sleeve slidably mounted on the staff,

strut means comprising two members, each having one end pivoted to the sleeve and its other end pivoted to one of said longitudinal edge flanges of the seat member adjacent the unflanged end of the seat member,

and means releasably holding the sleeve at the upper and lower limits of its movement along the staff for keeping the seat member selectively extended substantially right-angularly from the staff in operative position or retracted in inoperative position in substantial contact with and parallelism to the staff.

2. A combination sport seat and walking stick as claimed in claim 1, in which said last named means comprises a spring-pressed detent mounted on the sleeve and engageable selectively in holes formed in the staff at the upper and lower limits of movement of the sleeve. 

1. A combination sport seat and walking stick comprising a one-piece leg structure consisting of a hollow tubular single staff, a seat member comprising an oblong sheet metal body having a downturned flange at each longitudinal edge and at one end edge only, said end edge flange being turned inwardly, thereby forming a handle, means hinging one end of the staff to the under side of the seat member at substantially the center of the member, a sleeve slidably mounted on the staff, strut means comprising two members, each having one end pivoted to the sleeve and its other end pivoted to one of said longitudinal edge flanges of the seat member adjacent the unflanged end of the seat member, and means releasably holding the sleeve at the upper and lower limits of its movement along the staff for keeping the seat member selectively extended substantially right-angularly from the staff in operative position or retracted in inoperative position in substantial contact with and parallelism to the staff.
 2. A combination sport seat and walking stick as claimed in claim 1, in which said last named means comprises a spring-pressed detent mounted on the sleeve and engageable selectively in holes formed in the staff at the upper and lower limits of movement of the sleeve. 